Say no to the wrong project
If the problem does not need custom software, or we are not the right people to solve it, we say so on the first call. A bad fit costs you more than a lost quote costs us.
About PlanWise
We are a UK software consultancy built around a simple conviction: most software problems are planning problems wearing a technical disguise.
Who we are
Small teams, senior people, honest estimates
PlanWise exists because too many organisations have been through the same experience: a project that started with enthusiasm, ran over on cost and time, and delivered something nobody quite wanted. Almost always the root cause was the same — the build started before anyone had properly agreed what problem was being solved.
So we front-load the thinking. Every engagement begins with structured discovery: workshops with your stakeholders, interviews with the people who will use the thing, and a hard look at what your existing systems can and cannot do. Only then do we quote, and the quote comes with the reasoning attached so you can challenge it.
From there we work in small, senior teams. There are no layers of junior developers billed at senior rates — the people you meet at kick-off are the people writing your code. We work in two-week sprints with a demonstrable increment at the end of each one, so you are never more than a fortnight away from seeing where your money went.
And we finish properly. Your code lives in your repositories, your infrastructure runs in your cloud accounts, and documentation is written as we go rather than scrambled together at handover. If you decide to take everything in-house the day after launch, you can.
12+
Years building software
80+
Products planned & shipped
30+
Engineers, designers & testers
98%
Client retention rate
How we work
Plan. Design. Build. Deploy.
Four stages, each with a defined output you can review before the next one starts. No stage begins until you have signed off the one before it.
Plan
We start with discovery workshops to pin down the problem, the users and the commercial goal — then turn that into a scoped, costed roadmap you can actually budget against.
Design
Wireframes, clickable prototypes and a design system your team can grow with. You see and test the product before a line of production code is written.
Build
Small senior teams working in two-week sprints, with automated tests and code review on every change. You get a working increment you can review each fortnight.
Deploy
Cloud infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines and monitoring from day one — so releases are routine, reversible and boring in the best possible way.
Our principles
How we make decisions
These are the rules we hold ourselves to, including when they cost us work.
Estimate in ranges, not wishes
Single-number estimates are almost always optimistic. We quote ranges with the assumptions written down, and we tell you which assumptions are load-bearing.
Build the boring parts well
Logging, error handling, backups, access control. Unglamorous work that decides whether your product survives its second year in production.
Leave your team stronger
We pair with your developers, document as we go and run handover sessions. Our success is measured by how well things run once we are gone.
Security is not a phase
Dependency scanning, secrets management and sensible data handling are part of the pipeline from the first commit, not a pre-launch audit scramble.
Ship early, ship often
Software that has never been in front of a real user is a hypothesis. We get a usable version live as soon as it is genuinely useful, then improve it with evidence.
Why PlanWise
A consultancy that behaves like your own team
We work the way a good in-house team works — close to the problem, honest about trade-offs, and accountable for what happens after launch.
Senior-only teams
No layers of juniors billed at senior rates. The people in your kick-off are the people writing your code.
Fixed scope, clear pricing
A costed plan before we start, and a written change process if the scope moves. No open-ended invoices.
Secure by default
GDPR-aware data handling, dependency scanning and secrets management built into the pipeline, not bolted on later.
You own everything
Source code, infrastructure and documentation are yours from day one, in your repositories and your cloud accounts.
Tell us what you are trying to build
A 30-minute call, no charge and no sales script. You describe the problem, we tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.